Rationale:Children need lots of explicit
and systematic phonics instruction in order to be able to read.
Beginning readers need to know that words are made of sounds.
They also need to know which letters make each sound. Because all
words contain vowels, it is usually best to begin teaching vowels. It
is easier to teach short vowels because they are most commonly found in
words with only one vowel. This lesson will focus on a = /a/.
Students will review the short a sound, and then the students
will practice spelling and reading words with the /a/ sound.Materials:
Class set of Elkonin
boxes
Class set of letter manipulatives
Overhead Elkonin boxes and letter manipulatives
(a,b,c,d,g,k,l,m,n,p,r,s,t)
Class set of A Cat Nap by Educational Insights
Sentence strip with tongue twisterProcedure:1. Introduce the lesson: "Today
we are going to be learning about the short vowel A and the sound that
it makes. Every time you see an /a/ in a word, you will make the sound
of a crying baby. I want everyone to act like a baby, ready, aaahhhh,
Good! We need to know about this sound because we use it all the time.
2. Introduce the tongue twister to the students. Hold up a sentence
strip: "Ok, now lets say the tongue twister together: Ashley gave her
alligators apples after they asked nicely.
3. Using the overhead and the letter manipulatives, ask the students to
name words with that sound in them and model the way to sound out the
sounds in the words to the class. "Who can give me a word that has a
crying baby sound? Good, nap. Now, if I was going to spell that word, I
would listen to the sounds, /n/, /aaaaaa/ (thereās our sound), and
/p/." Practice more words using the Elkonin boxes.
4. "Now I want all of you to get out your boxes and letters and we are
all going to practice a few words." Have the students leave their
letters on their boards and then check the spelling. Start with three
phoneme words, then move to four and five phonemes. [s] [a] [d]
[l] [a] [p] [b] [a] [ck]
[g]
[l] [a] [d] [l] [a] [m] [p] [s] [t] [r]
[a] [n] [d]
5. "Now I am going to spell back a few words to you. If you know what
word Iām spelling, raise your hand and you can answer." Without using
the boxes, spell out the words to make sure they can really spell them.
6. With the book A Cat Nap, get into small groups or partners with
children and have the students read the book aloud. They can assess
each other by grading each other on reading speed, expression, and
knowing more words

Assessment:For an assessment, have a picture sheet made
out with lots of different pictures using different sounds and have the
students circle the pictures with the /a/ sound in their name. Have
pictures of apples, alligators, desks, lamp, shirt.